NaPoWriMo, Day 7

The Lovers card from Jennifer Galasso’s Crystal Visions Tarot was the prompt for today’s poem. (Click here to see the card.) This is not a deck I own, and the image struck me as trite when it popped up in the app I was using. I dashed off a flip little ditty and decided I just wouldn’t post today. But my experience working with tarot wouldn’t let me leave it at that: I’ve seen depth and complexity in other renderings of this card – what was I missing here? My squirrel brain kept gnawing at it until I came up with something presentable. I’m glad it did, independent of the result, because it made me put in a good day’s work writing.

Chosen

Let us close our eyes to the trappings of love, lest we be deceived
by the cloying scent of roses, the glorious ray of light that cleaves
the clouds. Doves’ wings whistle like arrows in flight, and roses
bristle with thorns. Dark clouds crowd the sky; can the tang
of ozone, the rumble of thunder be far behind?

Let us close our mouths to the rituals of love, speak no words
for the wind to carry off as they are heard. The link we forge of our will
and choosing must hold us longer than the silken cords of ceremony,
bind us more firmly than any oath we can swear.